County Wicklow

Welcome to the IRELAND GENEALOGICAL PROJECT ~ COUNTY WICKLOW PAGE. County Wicklow is a county on the east coast of Ireland between County Dublin to the north and County Wexford to the south. The County of Wicklow is named after it’s principal town Wicklow.

The Irish name for Wicklow county is Cill Mhantain. Comprising of 494,704 statute acres, the county stretches forty and a half miles from North to South and thirty three miles from East to West. Divided into eight baronies, through which the county had been governed since the 16th Century.

The county’s physical shape has always had a great impact on its history, and divides the County into three distinct regions; the low lying strip along the east coast, the mountains and valleys of the centre and the west and southern less mountainous area. The eastland lowland strip being the most fertile and populous - stretches from Bray to Arklow, and has the longest history of habitation.

The earliest recorded mention of this region is in the writings of the Greek Cartographer Ptomely in circa 130 A.D., the only surviving name from those maps is the that of the Avoca River spelt Ovoca by Ptomely. Renamed by a local Landlord in the 19th Century to Avoca, possibly inspired by the Greek’s records.

By far the largest area in the county is the central and western region of mountains, rivers, lakes and valleys. Starting in Dublin these granite Mountains run down the whole County, rising at their highest point, Lungnaquilla, to 3,039 feet, crowning the most extensive mountain range in Ireland.

The range is intersected by a number of great glens, most notably Glendalough, Glenmalure and Glen of Imaal. The rugged beauty of these uplands in contrast to the lowlands have helped give Co Wicklow, the name Garden of Ireland.

The first thing a person must learn about when starting Irish research is the system of Irish land divisions. The following text and maps will explain the basic system of land division in Ireland. It is not intended to be the definitive work on the subject.

Provinces

There are four provinces in Ireland. Connaught ~ Leinster ~ Munster and Ulster. Provinces are the largest land division in Ireland and are based on the ancient Irish kingdoms. These ancient territories were controlled by four important Irish families. O'Connor in Connaught, MacMurrough in Leinster, O'Brien in Munster, O'Neill in Ulster.

Counties

There are 32 Counties in Ireland. The county is the principal unit of local government. There are 26 Counties in the Republic of Ireland and 6 counties in Northern Ireland.

Baronies

There are 331 Baronies in Ireland and 8 in County Wicklow. The 8 County Wicklow Baronies are Arklow, Ballinacor North, Ballinacor South, Newcastle, Rathdown, Shiffelagh, Lower Talbotstown and Upper Talbotstown. They are no longer in use in Ireland today but are important for the study of Irish genealogy.

The following is a little bit info on the origins of the place names found in the Barony of Arklow in County Wicklow. It is not complete. Click on the images to enlarge them.

Civil Parish

Based on early medieval monastic and early Christian church settlements in Ireland. The Civil Parishes were the major administrative division until 1898.

Poor Law Union

The Poor Relief Act of 1838 created 130 Poor Law Unions. These unions were almost always centered around a large town and had boundaries that overlapped county boundaries. By 1850 there were 163 poor law unions. The Local Government Act of 1898 used the Poor Law Unions as the new basic administrative unit in Ireland. Replacing the old civil parishes and baronies. The unions were then subdivided into 829 Registration Districts and 3751 District Electoral Divisions.

Townland

There are more than 64,000 Townlands in Ireland. They are the smallest and the oldest Irish administrative division. Townlands were known to have existed before the 12th century, when some are found listed as Church property. In origin they seem to be to be like the Old English hide, the amount of land which would support a family and its dependents, and to other medieval land divisions such as ploughlands and quarters, townlands vary in size, from a single acre or less to several thousand, but on average each one covers about 350 acres. Anything from 5 to 30 townlands may be grouped together to form a civil parish. One has to be careful as many townlands share the same name. As the townlands are of such a great age the name of each was often derived from some local feature or landmark such as a forest or mountain. The townland names were originally in Irish Gaelic, but they became modified over the centuries. The townland became the standard unit of measurement during the seventeenth century. They were used as the smallest geographical unit in both Tithe Survey, Griffith's Evaluation and census returns, and they are still in use today.

Parish (Roman Catholic)

The Roman Catholic Church developed its own parish structure in the 16th century. Many parishes were just small villages with a church and a clergyman. Larger towns and cities would contain several parishes.

Diocese

In the 12th century a diocesan structure of four provinces was adopted. Armagh, Cashel, Dublin, and Tuam With each province headed by an Archbishop. Under each Archbishop was 22 bishops, each of them was in charge of a diocese. Remarkably the boundaries of each of the diocese have remained the same and are used by both the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

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